Coach Interview – Tony Umayam – Head Football Coach, Mountlake Terrace High School

Perennial football doormats, Mountlake Terrace, have rarely been relevant when discussing high school playoff football in this state. But, things have changed. Why, we wondered, was Mountlake Terrace suddenly good after all those years of futility? Why did they make the playoffs last year? Armed with these and other questions, High School Cover 2 met after work with head coach Tony Umayam at a coffee shop near Mill Creek. The result was the interview below. It quickly became crystal clear to us why Terrace was on the winning track. Here was a motivated young coach who spoke passionately about his efforts, and those of his staff, to turn things around. Here also was a coach who cared about his players and was doing it the right way and was disproving the belief that Mountlake Terrace football was doomed to always be second rate. Under the guidance of their dynamic young coach, Tony Umayam, they will be a continual league power. Of this we are certain.

High School Cover 2: Where did you play football and what position did you play?

Coach U: I played in high school at Mountlake Terrace and I played in College at Willamette University down in Oregon. I was a defensive back and wide receiver in high school and a defensive back at Willamette.

High School Cover 2: When did you decide to coach?

Coach U: After I graduated from Willamette, I took a couple of years off from football. At the end of that time, I gave Joel Vincent at Jackson a call after he got the head coaching job there. I think Jackson was only three or four years old at the time. He gave me a break and let me on his staff. I spent a couple of years there and then had an opportunity to move to Terrace as an assistant under Alex Barashkoff. I was on Alex’s staff for a couple of years when Craig Olson, the A.D. at Mercer Island, called me up and said they were looking for a defensive coordinator the next year. He told me that I would have a chance to coach under a hall of fame coach, Dick Nicholl, who had been coaching there for more than 30 years. When he retired, Coach Nicholl was the all time winning KINCO coach. I was fortunate to come and learn from him. I was happy there and was working nearby. I planned to stay there. When Alex left Mountlake Terrace, I debated if I should try to go back to the school where I had graduated. People were telling me that “it was a place where coaches went to die. No one has ever been able to win at Terrace. That must be the worst big school program in state history.” They were probably correct. Other bad teams have had their day in the sun; they’ve had some great years and some bad ones. Terrace had never in their history had a great team.

High School Cover 2: Can you explain a little about the woeful state of Mountlake Terrace before you arrived?

Coach U: I am an alumnus so I’ve been interested in our past history. Terrace has had only six winning seasons in the last 50 years. There have been seven years when they won five or more and only in nine of those 50 years have they won four or more games. In 2005 we won five games which ended 18 years of losing seasons. That 2005 team, by the way, was probably my most talented team, but the program wasn’t at a point yet where the culture had changed. There were always good athletes here. The basketball, baseball and other teams have done well. The culture of losing football was pervasive.

High School Cover 2: Do you have an understanding of why the team was so bad for all those years?

Coach U: The way I told it to the players is that you lose games off the field. It’s that mentality of how you go about things in the off season, how you go about things in workouts, how you just go about representing yourself as a football player from Mountlake Terrace that makes the difference. In the past that losing attitude kept breeding from class to class and the reputation of what it was to be a Terrace football player wasn’t a positive thing. When you give that image to a football program, when kids come into the program they just conform to that image because that’s what they are supposed to be. Terrace football had been known for being heavily penalized and for playing undisciplined football.

High School Cover 2: How did you go about changing that losing attitude?

Coach U: It was not an overnight process. Taking over such a desolate job and also being an alumnus there, I had an understanding of the history of the program. I believed that we had to stop losing games off the field. We needed to concentrate on grades and keeping kids eligible; we needed to start doing things right on and off the field. When you start doing that in one part of your student/athlete life, it’s going to transcend to other parts. It took going through a few classes and preaching that for it to sink in. It didn’t happen overnight and I was waiting for that one class where it finally began to click in. It finally happened two years ago with the senior class. The classes before them really didn’t want to buy into the program and try to reach the level that we set for them. Consequently, even though we were (Terrace will be a 3A school next y ear) a 4A school, we weren’t able to field a JV team because of the poor turnouts. When a coach from another school asked why we didn’t have a JV team, I told him he was playing our JV team. Most of our players were sophomores. Two years ago, the seniors that had stuck it out, plus a lot of sophomores, won four games. That was a big step forward for this program, especially since we had only won one the previous year. Those seniors set a tone for what was expected in the program and the kids following after them now knew how to conduct themselves. One thing that we, the coaches, are especially proud of is that we’ve gone two years now without any returning player being academically ineligible. Our message is getting through. We even have five or six basketball players on our team this year, something that would never have happened in the past.

High School Cover 2: How do you sustain your program now that you appear to have it turned around?

Coach U: Athletes these days have more options. I tell my coaches that we have to make football something they want to do, there are just too many options for kids to do today. Particularly, with the demands of all the other sports, you have to make football attractive to kids. I think in this day and age you have to be a marketer. As a head coach, I try to approach the job almost like a CEO running a business. I don’t think you are going to come in and outsmart the other coaches with your fantastic pre-game speeches and your cool offense. These days it’s a lot about the atmosphere you create and making it enjoyable for the players. Of course you still have to teach the basics, how to block and tackle, etc. In December, as a consequence of our trip to the playoffs for the first time in school history, Jerry Smith the mayor, and the city council invited the coaches to come to a city council session where they gave us one of those official proclamations of what we had achieved. They had the kids line up and told them that what they had accomplished brought excitement to the city. The city council then shook hands with each kid. After the ceremony, I told our kids that we want to make this an annual event. I want to make sure that we keep our momentum and don’t slide back to our old ways.

High School Cover 2: Is there some area of your program where you like to hang your hat, something that you stress to your players?

Coach U: Yes. What I have tried to instill in Terrace football is that we are just going to be tough. Our goal is to be the most physical team out there. We might not be the fastest or run the coolest schemes, but if we can somehow physically take care of things. Then, at least, we will be competitive in games. It starts on the defensive side of the ball and it keeps you in games. With our old reputation as losers, I do play the respect card and we play with a chip on our shoulder. If we are playing a team like Edmonds-Woodway, I might tell our kids that “their players think they are better than you just because they were born on the other side of 99 and they live by the water.”

High School Cover 2: Can you talk a little about your team next year and who you lost from your playoff team from last year?

Coach U: We did lose some key guys. Defensively we are going to be young. On offense we are losing Casey Ellersick who I think is the most influential player in Mountlake Terrace history. He was a four year starter at running back. When he started here it was a bad program and last year he was the one who led us to the playoffs. He was just a fantastic kid who will probably be playing at PLU next year. He was great on and off the field and was the rock of our program the last few years. He will be sorely missed. We’re also going to lose our QB and one lineman but we’re returning everyone else on offense. On defense we’re going to lose about seven guys. Last year we still weren’t able to field a JV team more than half the games but I’m very hopeful that with the kids buying into the program our turnout will be greater this year.

High School Cover 2: What are the challenges of coaching at Mountlake Terrace?

Coach U: This is not a terribly affluent area. Most of our kids don’t have the resources to pay for camps like the athletes at some other schools, like Skyline and the Bellvue, etc. Many of our kids come from single parent homes. It is hard for them to even afford the current “pay for play” system. I coached at Mercer Island for a while so I understand that it’s a different world at a school like Mountlake Terrace. At the affluent schools, you just need to tell the booster club that you need something and they say “how much?” Meanwhile, at Terrace we’re sitting there wondering what kind of fund raiser we can start to make money.

High School Cover 2: Does trying to turn the program around ever wear on you?

Coach U: Sure. Sometimes you wonder to yourself if all schools have all these challenges? On the other hand you look at yourself and realize that you are going through a period now where there are great kids in the program. Because there are great kids, the faculty has a much more positive image of Terrace football and there is a very strong core of booster parents. I suppose it also helps that we will be going down to class 3A next year. We’ve been one of the smallest 4A programs. But I’m not sure how much that’s going to help since we will be facing big time programs like Meadowdale and Glacier Peak in 3A.

High School Cover 2: Did you have a football mentor?

Coach U: As a player, I was influenced quite a bit by Bob Gregory. He was my defensive coordinator at Willamette. For many years he has been the defensive coordinator at CAL, but he is moving to Boise State next season. He was very influential. He impressed upon us that we needed to be a well-rounded, total person, not just a football player. He preached that you need to maximize your potential as a football player and a person. He emphasized that you needed to work in the weight room and to keep yourself healthy. He had a fantastic relationship with his family. One thing I learned from Dick Nicholl at Mercer Island was that it was important to first be a good person, then a good student and lastly to be a good athlete. I tried to pattern my program using many of the same principals.

High School Cover 2: During your playing days, was there an athlete that you looked up to or did you have a favorite player?

Coach U: That’s a good question. Because I was a defensive back I was enthralled by Ronny Lott, Dion Sanders, those type of players. I also played wide receiver and Steve Largent was a symbol of someone maximizing his potential at that position. Those three guys were my favorite football players.

High School Cover 2: What is your favorite football team?

Coach U: I’m a Seahawks fan. In the college ranks, I didn’t go to UW and though I’m a big fan now of what Sarkisian is doing, I tend to follow coaches more than teams. That’s why I’ll be following Bob Gregory at Boise State. I’m a big fan of Rutgers because of what Greg Schiano has done there turning that program around. When I was at Mercer Island and deciding whether to take the job at Mountlake Terrace I thought about him. He had played at Rutgers and was a successful defensive coach at Miami. The job he was doing there to turn that previously moribund program around excited me.

High School Cover 2: Do you have any desire to coach at a higher level?

Coach U: To go to the college level would be the most natural progression. I tell coaches that it’s probably something you want to do if you do it right out of school because when you have the responsibilities of a family and are already into your career, you are going to be putting in a lot of hours for little pay and there is not a lot of job security. The ones who make it to the top levels make six figures, but for the others it’s mainly a labor of love. I don’t envisage going to the college level. There aren’t a lot of small colleges in this area, not like there are down south. Not to say that down the road after I retire…. It might be fun to go to a small college town and coach wide receivers, for example. Right now I’d like to eventually leave Terrace as an attractive place to coach where the next head coach comes in and says “yah, I want that Terrace job.”

High School Cover 2: Do you have a funny coaching story that you’d like to share with us?

Coach U: One sticks out in my mind: I’m a new head coach and for the first time I’m taking a bunch of kids to camp. We are driving back from Eastern Washington, and we decide to stop for a bathroom break. Everybody piles off the bus and then back on. The bus takes off and about 10 miles down the road I receive a call on my cell phone from a kid saying “You left me.” That’s the worst thing that can happen to you as a coach. Panic goes through your mind. I was telling the bus driver he had to stop and turn around when a couple of the players told me not to worry, we could just call the next bus behind us It was from another school that was also at the camp. They could pick him up, they said. We’ve got to get home they kept telling me. I wouldn’t have anything to do with it, so we stopped and started to turn around and I looked around and the kids were all laughing. They thought it was the funniest thing. The kid had been on the bus the whole time. That was probably my biggest scare.